


Exchange Rate

by LorettaFryingPan



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Aging, Domestic, Fluff, M/M, Mini-Fic, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 00:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17355812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LorettaFryingPan/pseuds/LorettaFryingPan
Summary: Fjord and Caleb retire and settle down. Caleb goes grey, and Fjord reflects.





	Exchange Rate

**Author's Note:**

> This is a teeny little fic I wrote when I was noodling around with a friend. We were talking about Fjord and Caleb settling down and growing old together and all of that good sappy stuff. Eventually we circled around to Caleb with grey hair, and it struck me that he'd probably show his years sooner than Fjord, given his shall-we-say _stressful_ life. So here. This has been sitting in my phone's notes for too long, it's high time I share it. It's only 519 words, but it's cute.

Caleb goes grey a bit before his time, to be honest. The product of a hard life and deep stress, of years and years living with a shadow over his heart, manifesting as veins of silver in the rich copper of his hair just as he hits middle age. It comes in suddenly, a shock of it taking over his bangs almost overnight. Caleb pulls on it from time to time, staring in the mirror with a frown on his face, but Fjord thinks it looks good. 

"Striking," he says one morning, and when Caleb gives him an unimpressed look at his choice of words, clarifies; "makes you look distinguished, and it gives people a glimpse of how interesting you are."

That just makes Caleb roll his eyes, but Fjord can see the slight flush in his cheeks and the curl at the corners of his mouth, so Fjord counts that as a win. 

There are creases in Caleb's face as well, worry marks in his brow and crows' feet around his eyes. The lines around his mouth are harder to see, covered as they are by his beard; but when he smiles Fjord can see the laugh lines reaching up his face, like a pair of jubilant arms reaching to the sky.

But no matter what, Fjord cannot manage to look at Caleb and think "old". If anything, he seems younger now than he did when they met. He's changed, since those early days when the Mighty Nein were sleeping on the ground and traveling in a rickety cart filled with whatever random shit they thought they could hawk for a bit of coin. He was thinner back then, almost cruelly sharp; lean both in form and spirit. The years since have still been hard but nevertheless much kinder, and they've both softened the hard edges the world carved on them. Fjord is grateful that they have both lived long enough to be able to look back on those days, and to see how they've all grown. 

Even now, as Caleb naps next to the fire, glasses still on and book resting in his lap, he looks younger than he did all those years ago in Trostenwald. His face is peaceful and smooth, untroubled by dreams. Fjord works quietly in the small kitchen, stealing fond glances as he cooks. Before, Caleb would wake at the smallest noise, lurching into frightened awareness at every turn; now he sleeps soundly, not stirring once. Fjord pauses in his work to walk over to Caleb and press a gentle kiss to his forehead and brush one long silver lock out of his face. 

Fjord misses adventuring from time to time, the same way he misses sailing. The thrill of danger pulls on him occasionally. The call of riches, glory, and far off lands sings to him every now and again. But louder still is the song of home and hearth, of hard-earned peace and steadfast love. And while it may not be as lucrative as the platinum of a deep dungeon, far more valuable to Fjord is the silver in Caleb's hair.

**Author's Note:**

> I love the idea of a whole series of vignettes about the two of them retiring together, maybe someday this'll expand into a longer series. For now, and for the foreseeable future, it's just this. Let me know what you think!
> 
> I'm on tumblr @ lorettafryingpan/djinn-and-djuice, come say hey! <3


End file.
